Tuesday, 11 August 2009

Religulous

I know most of atheospace has already seen Bill Maher's anti-religious diatribe but as far as I'm concerned it was worth waiting for. A glorious 101 minute sneer & sniggerfest. How did Bill find so many idiots I wonder? Did he interview them first and pick only the stupid ones? Or are all religious people stupid? Or am I being overly subjective and only perceive religious people to be stupid when they are talking about their IMF and, after all, that was what they were in the film to do? Perhaps that is it. I can recall one exception in the film; a jolly old RC priest interviewed in Rome who seemed to be taking his religion with some scepticism and god was not mentioned.

I have a few friends who are religious but seem perfectly normal in their everyday lives. They probably know my views and, of course, the subject of religion is avoided. The Cof E clergymen I have encountered also seem very sane, decent chappies but again they rarely mention god outside church. Indeed one sometimes gets the impression that belief in god is completely optional for C of E membership, although this happy compromise is in risk of being undermined by the obnoxious Alpha Course. I remember seeing the Archbish RW being interviewed by Richard Dawkins. His statement of belief seemed so ethereal that I was unable to reach any conclusion about his mental capabilites

2 comments:

Great film! Bill Maher asks the questions that need to be asked, and whilst it was a funny documentary it had a serious message at the heart of it. Here is his speech from the end of the film:The irony of religion is that because of its power to divert man to destructive forces, the world could actually come to an end.The plain fact is, religion must die for mankind to live. The hour is getting very late to be able to indulge in having key decisions made by religious people, by irrationalists, by those who would steer the ship of state not by a compass but by the equivalent of reading the entrails of a chicken. George Bush prayed a lot about Iraq, but he didn’t learn a lot about it.Faith means making a virtue out of not thinking, it’s nothing to brag about and those who preach faith and enable and elevate it are intellectual slave holders, keeping mankind in a bondage to fantasy and nonsense that has spawned and justified so much lunacy and destruction. Religion is dangerous because it allows human beings who don’t have all the answers to think that they do. Most people would think it’s wonderful when someone says “I’m willing Lord, I’ll do what ever you want me to do”. Except that since there are no gods actually talking to us, that void is filled in by people, with their own corruptions and limitations and agendas.And anyone who tells you they know, they just know what happens when you die, I promise you, you don’t! How could I be so sure? Because I don’t know, and you do not possess mental powers that I do not.The only appropriate attitude for man to have about the big questions is not the arrogant certitude that is the hallmark of religion but doubt. Doubt is humble and that’s what man needs to be, considering that human history is just a litany of getting shit dead wrong.This is why rational people (anti-religionists) must end their timidity and come out of the closet and assert themselves. And those who consider themselves only moderately religious, they need to look in the mirror and realise that the solace and comfort that religion brings you actually comes at a terrible price.If you belong to a political party or a social club that was tied to as much bigotry, misogyny, homophobia, violence and sheer ignorance as religion is, you’d resign in protest. To do otherwise is to be an enabler, a mafia wife, with the true devils of extremism that draw their legitimacy from the billions of their fellow travellers.If the world does come to an end here or wherever (He’s in Megiddo, Israel – where a lot of Christians believe life on earth will end), or if a glimpse into the future decimated by the effects of religion inspired nuclear terrorism, lets remember what the real problem was, that we learned how to precipitate mass death before we got past the neurological disorder of wishing for it.That’s it, GROW UP OR DIE!